See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PARC_%28company%29 for an overview, and most especially, the Alto and Star. Xerox PARC, Alan Kay and others, can rightfully claim paternity for windowed graphical user interfaces and the mouse.
And Ethernet and the Laser Printer, if anyone is counting.
Whether this is a “rip off” or not is debatable but that Xerox did the R&D is not.
Thanks for the info., bigbob.
I was wondering whether or not Jobs claimed to have invented any of the aforementioned technology/hardware/software.
Apple did not just ripoff Xerox. Apple compensated Xerox $1M for their visits. Apple made substantial extensions on every technology shown during Jobs’s visit especially on graphical interface and pointing devices. Xerox published a reasonable level of their results in the open literature also. Jobs deserves full credit for developing and marketing the Macintosh. Here is an interesting report on Xerox Parc and Apple.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/16/110516fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=1